The “Empress of Golf” Inbee Park (35-KB Financial Group) has dropped out of the world’s top 100. It’s an unfamiliar number for a player who has won a career Grand Slam and an Olympic gold medal.
Inbee Park is ranked 101st in the latest Rolex Women’s Golf World Rankings with 1.09 ranking points. She dropped seven spots from No. 94 last week to fall outside the top 100.
Park has been a world-class player for the past decade. She burst onto the scene in 2008 when she won the U.S. Women’s Open at the age of 20, but then went through a slump before returning to form in 2012.
In 2013, she swept the U.S. Women’s Professional Golf 메이저사이트 (LPGA) Tour with six victories that year, including three straight majors. In 2015, she completed the seventh Grand Slam in women’s golf history, and the following year, at the 2016 Rio Olympics, she won the gold medal in women’s golf, which was revived after a 116-year hiatus, to complete the Golden Career Grand Slam.
Even after all she had accomplished, Park was not done. She won the LPGA in 2017, 2018, 2020, and 2021.
Her world ranking was also high. She was ranked No. 1 from 2013 to 2014 and has remained in the top 10 ever since. Even in 2020, when many thought she was past her prime, she finished the year at No. 3, No. 5 in 2021, and was No. 10 until June of last year.
However, his world ranking plummeted in the second half of last year. She started missing tournaments due to injuries, but it was actually due to her pregnancy. At the end of last year, she was ranked 36th.
After giving birth to a precious baby girl in April after 24 hours of labor, Park’s world ranking inevitably continued to decline, eventually dropping out of the top 100.
For now, Park’s world ranking is bound to continue to decline. She plans to focus on raising a family and resting for the time being.
But she’s not done playing yet. For now, her LPGA Tour seeding has been suspended until April 2025.
It”s unclear when she”ll return. For now, she plans to focus on having a baby this year and then decide if she wants to return next year.
In that case, she could play a “test event” to see how she feels. The LPGA Tour will add a player to the official entry list if they want to test their seeding. They won’t be able to collect any prize money, but they will be able to check their conditioning and skills and determine when they will eventually return.
“I don’t have a finalized timeline yet, but if I decide to return, it will be after next year,” Park said.